February 14, 2005
Friends in high places
Ever since Cablevision issued its $600 million bid for the proposed New York Jets stadium site, there has been much speculation about why, if it's such a hot property, other developers haven't joined the bidding. One possible explanation is supplied today by the New York Times' Charles Bagli:
Several Manhattan developers, who requested anonymity, said that that they would bid for the rights for the railyard if the M.T.A. conducted an open sale, but had so far refrained from doing so because they did not want to incur Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg's wrath."It's clearly valuable," said a major residential developer, who asked not to be identified. "But can anyone in my position say so on the record? Everyone, including me, is scared to cross him on this. I've got too many things cooking in this town" that require city approval.
If true, this means that Mayor Bloomberg would rather deny the city transit system a bidding war for its site - at a time when the mayor himself says the system is billions of dollars short in needed funding - than risk giving up his stadium dreams. (Concerned subway and bus riders can drop the mayor a message here.)
In other Jets stadium news, the mayor's charter revision commission officially turned down requests to put a stadium referendum on the November ballot. Told ya.
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